


An Elegant Destruction (Working Title)

by Watsherface



Category: Fallout: New Vegas
Genre: Dysphoria, F/F, Low level courier, Some erotica, Tags will update with the story, geckos
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-10-10
Updated: 2019-02-18
Packaged: 2019-07-28 21:21:21
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 16,622
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16250036
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Watsherface/pseuds/Watsherface
Summary: A somewhat promiscuous, transfem courier goes on adventures across the Mojave.





	1. Chapter 1

The blonde woman sat up in the patient bed, blinking the blurriness out of her eyes and let out a low groan at the dizziness assaulting her. Sitting in chair a few feet away from her and reading a book, the bald, wrinkled and mustachioed man lowered his book and winced empathetically. “Oh, good, you’re awake. I’m Doc Mitchell, welcome to Goodsprings. Now, you still experiencing any headaches?”

The woman shook her head, looking down at her. “No, just a bit dizzy. Could use something to drink. And what am I wearing?” A baggy, linen shirt hung on her broad shoulders and a pair of too large panties slid slightly down her hips as she sat up. “These aren’t my clothes.” 

Doc Mitchell thumbed over his shoulder towards the door. “Your underwear is drying on the line outside. Should be ready about now, actually. As for the clothes, those are my wife’s old things, figured I ought to cover you up while I washed your things. Unfortunately, the overclothes you were buried in were a bit ruined by the blood and the dirt, so I threw them out.”

The woman furrowed her brow as the dizziness faded. “Buried? Shit, I can barely remember what happened.” 

“Heh. Not surprising considering you were shot in the head. Speaking of which, we should get to that important stuff. How about your name, can you tell me your name? Birth name or new name, I’m not particular.”

The woman nodded, saying, “Jenny.” She motioned towards her groin. “So you saw everything, I assume.”

Doc Mitchell nodded and scratched at his moustache. “Yeah, I heard they can do some amazing stuff out west with medicine and hormones. Shouldn’t be too worried about prejudiced people too much, though. Plenty of intersex people around here thanks to the radiation, so people are pretty used to the idea of genitals that aren’t necessarily congruent with gender.” He winced, saying, “Speaking of your looks, now, I pride myself on my needlework, but you should take a look at yourself. Tell me if I got anything out of place, you know, mole on your cheek that used to be on your forehead, that sort of thing.” 

Jenny chuckled and took the mirror that he offered. Looking at herself, though, the smile slipped off her face. A gouge along her skull, with some scar tissue in it, had appeared since she looked at herself last, along the side of her skull, and the doctor apparently shaved the side of her head to get at the wound. “Well, you did what you could. And at least the haircut is fashionable.”

“Hehe. Doctors used to be barbers, too, if the books in the Vaults can be believed.” His face and tone turned a bit more somber. “I’m sorry for what happened to you. For what it’s worth, and I don’t mean to brag, but I think you still look pretty good. Anyway, there was a robot in town that dug you out of the grave, so we should probably get you on your feet to go see if you can’t go talk to him.” 

With the help of the Doc, Jenny rose to her feet, facing only a little spinning in her head and some trembling in her legs. “How long was I out?” 

“Couple of days. About normal for a serious head injury, let alone one like this.” 

“Fuck. Could I get some water, something to eat maybe?” 

“Sure.” 

Jenny found her feet more easily after a moment, the dizziness fading over the next hour or so as she ate and drank with the Doc. She answered some questions to make sure she had her faculties about her, gave him some idea of a medical history, and he took her vitals with a surprisingly novel device. After the questioning and everything, she sat with her legs crossed on the couch. 

“Anyway,” Doc Mitchell said, “I’m going to step outside to see if your underthings are dry yet. My wife’s old bras were too big for you, or else I’d give you a spare or two.” He gestured to a backpack beside some of the medical equipment he kept in the living room. “Your other things are there, and I’ll find you a change of clothes, too. Wife was pretty broad, too, so her old jumpsuit ought to fit.” He stepped outside and Jenny went through the backpack, finding a familiar nine millimeter pistol, some ammunition, some bottlecaps, a mostly full canteen and a couple notes reminding her of why she was in this area in the first place. 

Doc Mitchell returned a little while later, a change of clothes in his arms. He gave Jenny some privacy as she changed, putting on a pair of plain panties that actually fit, a bra, and a one-size-fits-all blue and yellow Vault suit that the Doc said, “Used to belong to my wife. Should still be in decent shape; she didn’t wear it much once we left the Vault, felt it was too brazen.” Jenny looked at herself in it, finding that it accentuated her hips. After changing, Jenny found the Doc by the front door. 

He held a somewhat bulky wrist computer and said, “This here is a Pip-Boy 3000. I don’t find much use for it anymore, since I don’t go travelling and I’m pretty good at observing my own vitals, but you should get some use out of it. If you would give me your arm.” Suppressing her apprehensiveness, Jenny reminded herself that this man saved her life and fed and watered her, and extended her left arm. Doc Mitchell rolled up her sleeve and strapped the computer onto her arm, showing her how to use it to observe her vitals, scan and manage her equipment, use and update the map, and make and scan notes and holotapes. “Now, you should go and give Sunny Smiles a visit, down in the saloon. She’s the local hunter, ought to be able to give you a few pointers for surviving out in the wilderness. And you might have a chat with Victor, the robot that dug you out of the grave. If anybody saw anything, it would’ve been him. And I hope you don’t mind, but I went through your things to make sure you weren’t going to shoot up the place once you woke up, and I saw that you’re working for the Mojave Express. Nearest outpost is in Primm, about six hours’ walk south of here.” 

Jenny gave him a firm hug and said, “I appreciate everything you’ve done for me, really. Thanks, Doc.”

Doc Mitchell, a few inches shorter than her and a little uncomfortable with the hug, extricated himself from her arms and said, “Don’t mention it. To be honest, it was interesting to have a more challenging job than just patching up gecko bites.”

Chuckling, Jenny said, “Well, if I get shot in the head again, I know who I’ll go to. Adios.” 

“Adios.” 

XXXXXXXXXX

Reclining on a bench in Goodsprings’ one little saloon, the skinny redhead in leather rested her eyes. When her dog started growling, she popped one eye open, seeing a blonde with a gnarly facial scar in a Vault jumpsuit approaching. Sunny Smiles put a hand between the big dog’s ears and said, “Cheyenne, stay.” Obediently, the dog quieted down, but still shot this stranger wary eyes. She opened her other eye and sat up with a grunt. “Sorry about that. She’s a bit jumpy lately.” 

The blonde nodded. “I understand. You’re Sunny Smiles?”

Sunny smiled, showing her well kept teeth, and said, “I am she. And you are?”

“Jenny.” 

“Jenny. No last name?” Sunny’s smirk broadened, and she waved a hand at Jenny’s flustered expression. “Don’t worry, I won’t pester you over it. Keep your privacy if you want. So what do you want, Jenny?”

Folding her arms over her smallish breasts, Jenny said, “Doc Mitchell told me you could help me learn how to survive in the Mojave. Seeing how I’m new to these parts, I supposed I should come and talk to you.”

Sunny pushed her tongue into her cheek, waited a moment, then shrugged. “Alright. Meet me out back in ten minutes. I need to grab something.” 

Ten minutes later they met out back of the saloon. Sunny Smiles carried two rifles of similar make over her shoulder, as well as a satchel over the other shoulder. As she approached the blondie sitting on the hill behind the Prospector Saloon, she took one of the rifles off her shoulder. “So, Jenny was it? Who are you that Doc Mitchell was willing to part with his wife’s old jumpsuit?” 

Jenny stood up and shrugged. “I don’t know why he was so charitable. I suppose it’s possible that he’s just a good guy, and considering he saved my life, he doesn’t really deserve my suspicion.” 

Nodding, Sunny thumbed at her chin. “Well, he does patch people up for free, if they can’t pay, and he helped save Cheyenne when she was abandoned as a pup.” She absentmindedly scratched behind her dog’s ears. “Anyway, let’s get to it.” She unlooped one of the rifles from over her shoulder and handed it to Jenny. Jenny looked over the weathered bolt action rifle, taking note of the two notches on the stock. “Took that off a Powder Ganger that tried to jump me. He wasn’t counting on Cheyenne.” 

Furrowing her brow, Jenny asked, “What’s a Powder Ganger?”

“Escapees from the NCR Correctional Facility a few miles east of town. Turns out giving a bunch of violent criminals dynamite was a bad idea.” She rolled her eyes and turned to the saloon. She pointed down the hill. “See those bottles set up on the bench there? Why don’t you try and hit a couple of them? Don’t worry about the saloon; people have been using that bench for target practice for so long that Trudy decided she’d just reinforce the wall instead of dealing with any more bullet injuries.” 

Jenny chuckled. “Don’t make fun of me, now. I’m not exactly a great shot.” 

With a grin, Sunny said, “Well, hopefully I can shape you up into a better one.” 

When Jenny shouldered her rifle, Sunny Smiles winced, but waited for her to squeeze off her first shot to see all the mistakes that she was making. After watching her work the bolt back and forth, Sunny raised her hands and stepped beside Jenny. “Alright, alright,” Jenny said, rolling her eyes as she lowered the rifle, “tell me what an idiot I am already.” 

Sunny’s smile slipped. “You’re not an idiot. As far as I know, anyhow.” Glancing down, she said, “Your trigger discipline is good, at least. And you’re not jerking the weapon when you pull it, which is good, but it certainly seems like you’re not trained.” 

With a sheepish look, Jenny said, “Well, I’m used to laser guns. They don’t have kickback, so I don’t really know how to deal with it.” 

“Wow. Well, then that explains why you’re getting knocked around by a dang varmint rifle, hehe.” She stepped around behind Jenny and wrapped her arms around her in an instructional, but intimate movement that made Jenny blush. Sunny put her hands on Jenny’s elbows and lifted the rifle to her shoulder. “Your problem is two things: your posture and your breathing. Roll your shoulders forward and your hips back.” 

Jenny followed instructions, noticing with a flush that doing so pressed her bum into Sunny’s hips. “Like this?” 

Sunny nodded. “Now, make sure you breathe. Don’t pull the trigger in between breaths, don’t hold it, and make sure you pull with an even, not a jerky motion.” Then Jenny pulled the trigger, and a bottle on the bench’s neck exploded, knocking the thing to the ground. Sunny stood back, smiling at the grin that spread across Jenny’s face. Jenny worked the bolt, still grinning. “Good! Now see if you can do it two more times.”

After Jenny followed orders and took two more bottles out, albeit one of them not the one she was aiming for, Sunny gave her a short round of applause. “Nice, nice. Now, I doubt you came to me to learn how to kill sarsaparilla bottles. I’ve got to go chase some geckos away from the water source near town, and it ought to give you some good practice, even if the geckos won’t be shooting at you. Will you come?”

Jenny nodded. “Are they dangerous?”

Sunny shrugged. “Bit more dangerous than coyotes, plus they tend to go after bigger prey than coyotes do, so we should be careful, but it’s not the end of the world if one bites you.” She rolled up the hem of her shirt and folded back some of the leather over it, showing some paler skin than on her face and arms, as well as a half moon of triangular scars about as big across as a man’s fist. “This is the only time that they bit me and got through the leather. Didn’t even need stitches. I’ve heard about some bigger, more dangerous ones out in the wasteland, but I haven’t run into any around here.”

With an apprehensive gulp, Jenny nodded and said, “I suppose we’ll just have to be careful then. Besides, someone’s got to chase them away from the water, right?”

Sunny nodded and produced a box of bullets from her satchel, handing them off. “Here. The rifle takes 5.56 ammunition, by the way. Shouldn’t kick too bad, but might have trouble taking down anything bigger than a gecko.” 

As they headed out towards the water source, Jenny reloaded her rifle and Sunny asked her, “So, Jenny. Why don’t you want to tell me your last name?”

Jenny furrowed her brow. “Didn’t you say you wouldn’t pester me about that?”

With a grin, Sunny said, “Well, if you’re going to keep pushing your butt up on me like when I was showing you how to shoot, I figured I ought to get to know you better. You know, in case this goes anywhere further than that.”

Jenny’s freckled cheeks turned red. “Right. You should, uh, well. I should probably tell you some stuff about me then. My last name is Carlisle.” She said this with a finality, waiting as if Sunny would have a knee jerk response.

“Doesn’t ring a bell.” 

Letting out a relieved sigh, Jenny said, “Oh, thank fucking God. My parents were a big deal back west, and I was wondering a little bit how far I would have to go to get someplace that nobody gave a shit about them. At least, fewer people, anyway.”

Sunny Smiles nodded. “I can’t relate. My mom’s been dead a while, and my dad hasn’t been around for a few years, so there wasn’t a whole lot of legacy for me to deal with.”

“I, uh, I don’t really know how to respond to that. I’m sorry, I guess.”

Sunny gave her a dismissive wave. “I’m over it. Much as I can be, anyway. So what did your parents do that made them a big deal, as you put it?”

“They were bankers and water merchants, as the two tend to go together. Turned out they were into some mob business, which put them in the newspapers.” Jenny shrugged. “Apparently they did some really bad stuff, and would’ve been executed if it weren’t for how much money they paid for fines, but since they did, I had to find a job. Plus, once word got around about what they’d done, I kinda wanted to get out of town.”

“Wow. Well, remind me not to trust my first instinct.” 

Jenny cocked an eyebrow. “What? Why?”

“Well, my first impression of you is that you’re a sweet thing that got in too deep with something dangerous, and is going to have to grow up quick.” Blinking rapidly, Jenny wondered how she’d figured her already, but then Sunny said, “After you told me about your parents, though, I figured maybe you’re already grown and maybe even dangerous.” She shrugged and turned to Jenny with a smile. “Suppose I’ll just have to hang around you and find out, huh?”

“Suppose so.”

A few more minutes passed in mostly silence before Sunny broke it, saying, “So, you killed anything before?”

“A few nightstalkers, some injured brahmin. Why?” A nervous expression crossed Jenny’s face and she fiddled some of her fingers against each other.

“Just wondering. Geckos are a little cute when they’re not trying to tear you apart, so I wanted to make sure you’d be okay with shooting them when they don’t know you’re there yet. Speaking of, we’re getting close, so we should get low.” The pair crouched and Cheyenne lowered her head and bared her teeth. As they crested a low hill, they heard an odd sound echoing. Sunny stopped and stuck an arm out in front of Jenny to stop her too. “Shoot, do you hear that? I think somebody’s in trouble. We need to hurry.” She stood up straight and set out at a run, followed by Jenny and Cheyenne. 

As they reached the top of the next hill, finding the big, low to the ground tank jutting out of the ground halfway down the hill, they saw a bunch of bipedal, short creatures milling about, several of them chasing around a woman with a pair of buckets in her hands. As the creatures lunged at her, she smacked them away with her heavy buckets. Jenny watched, somewhat frozen, as Sunny took a knee and shouldered her rifle. One of the geckos latched its maw onto the woman’s leg, and as she screamed, Sunny put a bullet in the creature, making it release a moment later. 

Several of the geckos that were drinking the leaking water split away from it, tearing up the hill towards Sunny and Jenny. “Take care of the ones coming up the hill,” Sunny said, “and I’ll try and keep her from taking any more bites.” Jenny blinked rapidly, taken aback both by the situation and the cool tone of Sunny’s voice.

“Right.” Jenny shouldered her own rifle, taking a rushed shot at the gecko closest to them, around fifteen yards away. The bullet ripped through the gecko’s leg, making it stumble and fall onto its face. She worked the bolt back and forth. Her heart hammering in her chest, Jenny forgot some of the pointers that Sunny had given her, tensing her entire torso and holding her breath so that her next shot went wide. 

The gecko she’d aimed at opened its mouth wide, slaver dripping from its gaping maw. She worked the bolt as fast as she could, but in her rush, she didn’t lift it high enough before pulling it back, and didn’t know if she could fix her error before the beast was upon her, and in her panic she couldn’t even think to yell for help. 

Cheyenne helped her anyway, lunging towards the side of the gecko. The dog clamped her jaws around the gecko’s neck, thrashing it back and forth before tossing it back down the hill. By then, Jenny had finally gotten another bullet chambered, and so was able to shoot the gecko coming after Cheyenne from behind. 

Meanwhile, Sunny had worked. Five geckos laid dead around the injured woman, and the few remaining ones drinking the dribbling leak from the water source scrambled to escape. By the time she changed to chasing the other geckos on their way with a few bullets, the woman that took a gecko bite on the leg limped her way up the hill, carrying her heavy buckets. 

“Thank you, Sunny,” she said, nodding towards her. Sunny just gave her a warm smile in return. She turned to Jenny then, and, sweat on her brow, winced at the pain radiating from her leg. “And who is this wonderful woman that helped rescue me?”

Jenny looked up from reloading her rifle with surprise, not expecting to be thanked. “Oh, I’m Jenny. And really, Sunny did most of the work.” 

The woman shook her head. “You helped save my life, or at least my limbs if I hadn’t been able to get away. I don’t have a whole lot, but at least let me do something for you. How about I cook you dinner?” 

Jenny glanced at Sunny, who nodded, then back to the woman. “That would be wonderful. Suppose we’ll be having gecko, huh?” 

Sunny started down the hill to throw a few of the dead animals over her shoulder, each of them the size of a small child. “It’s good meat. Now, why don’t you help her carry her water?” 

Taking a step towards the woman as she limped away, Jenny said, “Hang on, what’s your name?”

“Annabelle,” she said over her shoulder as Jenny hurried to catch up to her. Jenny slung her rifle over her shoulder and took the buckets from Annabelle’s hands. “And thank you again. Don’t worry about Sunny catching up, she knows where I live.” They both looked over their shoulder to see Sunny struggling somewhat under the weight of the geckos. 

Registering what Annabelle said, Jenny blinked a couple times. “Oh, are you two together?” 

Annabelle cocked a brown eyebrow. “What? No, everyone knows everyone around here. Where are you from, anyway? I don’t recall seeing you around here before, and I’m hardly popular like Trudy, but it’s a small town.” 

“I’m from the Hub. Suppose I’m just used to cities, to be honest.” Jenny let out a nervous chuckle. “So I suppose you’ll be seeing Doc Mitchell?” At Annabelle’s nod, she tapped on the new scar on her face and head. “He fixed this up. Figure a gecko bite ought to be fine”

Annabelle’s eyes widened. “Oh, wow, I hadn’t even realized that you’re that girl. I heard there was a girl that got shot in the head and Doc Mitchell saved.” She shook her head. “I wouldn’t even know how to go about doing that. Saving someone that got shot like that, I mean. I barely know what to do for a cut when you’re cleaning meat, hehe.” She winced again and looked at the ground. “I suppose that he really is something of a miracle worker.” 

Jenny smiled. “Something like that.”

XXXXXXXXXX

Sunny met up with Annabelle and Jenny by Annabelle’s house in the early evening, having spent the intervening hours cleaning some of the gecko kills. She stripped the hides and fed Cheyenne as many entrails as she could eat, saving the good meat and leaving the rest of the entrails to the buzzards and crows well away from everyone’s houses. To Annabelle’s house, she carried the meat for the night’s dinner in a burlap sack, leaving the rest of it to dry at her place. 

Jenny cringed a little when she saw Annabelle’s house the first time. She remembered some of the poor folks in the Hub having richer dwellings than Annabelle’s house, which passed for little better than a shack, built on centuries old foundations with crooked, thin walls and cracked paint. They sat in the living room/kitchen space of the house, the inside only a little cooler than the sweltering heat outside. Talking with Annabelle, Jenny found her to be a rather plain woman, and regaled her with tales of the Hub, of shootings that took place in the lower part of the city and what the police did about it, mostly. She shied away from telling Annabelle about her own living space back in the Hub, where her bedroom alone was half as large as Annabelle’s house. 

With the sun setting and Annabelle stoking the fire in the stove while sitting with her injured leg stretched out, Sunny Smiles knocked on the front door. Annabelle moved to stand, but Jenny raised and hand and said, “I’ll get the door, don’t worry about it.” Smiling at Annabelle’s thankful expression, Jenny stepped over to the door and opened it. Sunny smiled at Jenny and hefted her sack full of meat. 

“I didn’t know how much you all wanted to eat, so I brought a couple larger cuts of meat. Hope you don’t mind.” At Jenny’s invitation, Sunny stepped inside and set the sack of meat on the floor beside the stove, having drained most of the blood at her own house so it wouldn’t drip overmuch. 

While Annabelle cooked the meat, Sunny taught Jenny to make healing powder using some herbs and a mortar and pestle that she brought with her. Annabelle also paid attention to the lesson, just in case something happened to Doc Mitchell. As she wrapped up the lesson and gave Jenny the little pouch of powdered herbs, Sunny told her, “It’s not as good as a stimpak, but for through and through bullet wounds, radscorpion stings, stab wounds, it could save your life. Helps the blood to clot and the wound to close. For bullets that don’t go all the way through you, though, you’ll to snort some of the powder and use some of these.” She pulled out a pair of odd looking tongs, with long, thin appendages. “Got these from some prospector going through an old hospital. Good for digging out bullets and shrapnel. Snorting the powder can help kill pain, so you’ll want to do that before you go digging around inside yourself.”

Jenny blanched. “Sounds like you’ve done this a few times.”

Sunny shrugged. “This used to be Jackal Gang territory, before the NCR came down I-15. I was just a kid back then, but there were a lot of smaller gunfights and muggings, so my mom taught me how to deal with bullet wounds. Pulled a couple out of my dad, in fact, and a couple out of myself, too, with these tongs.” She clicked them twice, then wrapped them back up in the leather from her pack before helping Jenny put them in hers. “You’ll want to keep them clean, or else you’ll risk infection.” 

Still uncomfortable with the nature of the discussion, Jenny gave Sunny an awkward smile. “I appreciate you doing all this to help me learn how to survive out here. I doubt I’d make it three days out there without your help.” 

Trying to look aloof and only somewhat succeeding, Sunny looked away. Jenny caught the faint blush on her tanned cheeks. “Shucks, well, you helped me with the geckos, and Annabelle, too, so really it was the least I could do.”

Annabelle announced a moment later that dinner was ready. As they sat and ate, Jenny commented on the odd, gamey, yet pleasant taste of the meat, to which Annabelle said, “Yeah, well, I know how to cook gecko. There’s a lot of them in this area, so I should know, huh?”

They chatted over dinner, mostly about the weather and other such small talk, but the others gave Jenny some tips as well, like what to do during a sandstorm. As they finished dinner, Jenny came to a realization. She turned to Sunny and, hoping that the nervousness on her face wouldn’t show, said, “So, I don’t have a place to stay tonight. Is it alright if I stay at your place? I’ll probably be headed out of town soon, anyway, so you don’t need to be worried about me taking up space for long.”

Sunny swallowed and said, “Of course you can stay at my place. I’ve only got the one bed, though.” Embarrassed heat rushed to Jenny’s cheeks as she realized the potential implications of Sunny’s statement. Then, thinking a moment about what might happen in Sunny’s bed, heat rushed to her crotch, in turn making her more embarrassed and making her decide to just focus on finishing her food. 

Killing the awkward moment of silence, Annabelle said, “Well, I was thinking I’d turn in for the evening soon, anyway. Kind of tired me out, the whole day I mean.” 

Standing and gathering her things, Jenny said, “Alright, well I suppose we should leave you to it, then.” 

Sunny’s hand brushed Jenny’s shoulder to grab her attention. “Do you want to go down to the saloon? Trudy’s the owner and she likes to meet everyone that comes through, and she’d probably have my head if I didn’t introduce you to her.”

“Sure.”

Sunny led the way down the hill to the Saloon. Out front sat an old mess of deeply tanned wrinkles smoking a pipe and rocking slowly in his rocking chair. As they approached, Sunny pointed to him and said, “That’s Easy Pete. Oldest guy I know.”

Jenny nodded. A little closer, and Easy Pete spoke up in a rumbling, deep croak, thumbing over his shoulder at the front door. “Joe Cobb’s come for a visit.” His eyes, beady behind folds of skin, fell to Jenny’s hip where her pistol hung in a holster. “Gonna want to unclip that holster, young lady. Cobb’s bad business.” With a gulp, Jenny followed directions. 

As soon as Sunny opened the door, the shouting voice of Joe Cobb reached her ears. “You’d better tell the whole town, Trudy, if you don’t have Ringo trotted out of town by noon tomorrow, I’m gonna come back here with my friends and we’re gonna burn the whole damn town to the ground.”

They stepped around to the bar area of the saloon, seeing a middle aged woman standing behind the bar with her arms folded, staring down a man in a prisoner’s uniform, with some riot armor over his torso. The woman behind the bar, Trudy, said to him, “Yeah, I’m trembling in my boots. Now, if you ain’t gonna buy anything, get out.” Everyone in the bar watched as Joe Cobb glared around the room, turning to leave. 

After he slammed the door behind him, Trudy leaned forward onto the bar with a sigh. Her eyes looked tired as they flicked to Sunny and Jenny. “Hey, Sunny. Who’s this?”

Jenny extended her hand for shaking, saying, “Jenny.”

Trudy cocked an eyebrow. “Just Jenny? Alright. Good name, I suppose.”

Grinning, Jenny said, “Thanks, I picked it myself.” 

Letting out a tired, strained chuckle, Trudy shook her head. “Nice. So what brings you down to my little corner of the Mojave?”

Sunny took up a stool in front of Trudy. “That’d be me. We came down to say hi and grab a drink before bed.” She winked at Jenny, who blushed, making Trudy laugh yet harder and a bit more genuinely. 

Trudy leaned towards Jenny, saying, “You watch yourself with that one, now. She’s a real lady killer.” 

Rolling her eyes, Sunny said, “Just get me a beer and whatever Jenny wants.”

“That’ll be a beer,” Jenny said with a sheepish expression, taking a seat beside Sunny. Sunny slid a few caps over the bar and Trudy set to grabbing them their drinks. Trudy returned, opened the bottles for them and pocketed the caps. “Thanks.” After sipping the cool, hoppy drink, Jenny said to Trudy, “So what do you plan to do about Joe Cobb and the Powder Gangers?”

The smile slid off of Trudy’s face. She shook her head with a sigh. “I don’t know. Ringo, the guy they’re looking for, he’s hiding up at the old gas station, but we can’t just turn him over, and we can’t just kill Joe Cobb. Much as I’d like to chase him out of here with a gun, he hasn’t hurt anybody yet and might just be bluffing. As for me, I just hope Ringo sneaks out of here one night and takes Joe Cobb with him.”

Sunny shook her head. “Even if we turned Ringo over or he ran off, the Powder Gangers wouldn’t leave us alone. They’re not going to until we stand up to them and show them that Goodsprings isn’t to be messed with lightly.”

Trudy winced. “You’re right. I’ll round some people up, make sure Ringo is here tomorrow at noon. We’ll stick up for ourselves.” 

Leaning over the bar and putting a hand on Trudy’s shoulder, Sunny’s voice took on a lighter tone. “Hey, look on the bright side. Lots of guns and explosions. It’ll be the most interesting thing to happen in this town since the NCR chased away the Jackals.”

With a dry chuckle, Trudy put her hand over Sunny’s, squeezed it, and removed it from her shoulder. “Guns and explosions means holes to patch up and graves to dig, but yeah, at least it’ll be interesting.”

Jenny looked at Sunny and Trudy. “I’ll have a chat with Doc Mitchell tomorrow, see if he has any medical equipment he can spare, and make sure he’s got everything prepped for injuries.”

They continued discussing logistics of the battle, where to tell people to set up for optimum cover and vantage points, who would negotiate with Chet, the stingy general store owner, and other such things. Before long, Sunny and Jenny finished their beers and left, still somewhat buzzing with energy. About halfway along the walk to Sunny’s house, set a little ways away from the rest of the town, Jenny felt Sunny take her hand in hers. She felt her heart hammering in her chest, both from the contact and wondering if she would let Sunny go further with her tonight. 

Most of the way up the hill to Sunny’s house, Jenny gave Sunny’s hand a squeeze. Sunny stopped by the front door to her house and turned to Jenny, taking her other hand in hers. “So, Jenny,” she said, a grin on her face, “I think you’re pretty neat. And you’re cute. And you’re interested in sleeping in the same bed as me, so I thought, and tell me if you think otherwise, that maybe you’d be interested in having some fun tonight. And I don’t mean shooting bottles down at the saloon.”

Jenny slipped her hands out of Sunny’s and for a moment, a disappointed look crossed Sunny’s face, but then her hands fell to her hips, and Jenny said, “I think that we could have quite a bit of fun. There’s a couple of things you should know about me, though.” Sunny quirked an eyebrow as Jenny took a nervous, deep breath. “I have a penis. Just didn’t want it to be a surprise when you got me undressed.” 

Surprised, Sunny raised her eyebrows, but a moment later wrapped her arms around Jenny’s neck, pulling her close. “I don’t mind. So, are you, you know, fertile? Because I’m not ready to be a mom yet, so we should probably stick to oral if you are.”

With a somewhat relieved, somewhat nervous chuckle, Jenny said, “I think I am? When I was on the hormones that made me the woman I was supposed to be, I wasn’t fertile, but since I’ve had to stop taking them, well, I’m more typically functional, if you know what I mean.” She leaned in with a playful tone as she said this, and Sunny giggled. 

“Let’s head on inside. I’ve got a pretty big tub; we could wash up together, then have some fun.” 

(There’s sex in the next scene. If you want to skip the erotica, then jump ahead to the next set of lowercase x’s)  
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As soon as Sunny opened the door, Jenny pulled her close and kissed her. She smelled a bit of sweat and gecko, but the passion behind the kiss made it rather difficult to mind. Jenny’s tongue tangled with Sunny’s, and as she squeezed Sunny’s behind, Sunny clutched Jenny’s jumpsuit, squeezing their bodies together. After a long while that wasn’t nearly long enough, Sunny broke the kiss with a heavy breath, leaning her forehead against Jenny’s. “You know, blue really is a good color on you, but I’d like to see what you look like out of it.”

She reached up to Jenny’s collar and tugged the zipper down to her navel. Sunny slid her hand underneath the jumpsuit to sit on Jenny’s hip, admiring the soft curves and freckled, tan skin beneath the jumpsuit as Jenny shrugged out of it, leaving her breasts covered only by her plain full cup bra. “One moment,” Jenny said, stepping back from Sunny’s fondling. She hurried over to the nearest place to sit, hastily unlacing her boots while Sunny watched and undid her own leathers. 

A few seconds later, Jenny stood before Sunny in only her underwear, and Sunny stood wearing her sweat stained undershirt and pants, leather chaps and reinforced jacket on the floor. Jenny struck a pose with a hand on her hip and a grin on her face. “You like what you see?” She chuckled at Sunny licking her lips and taking in an eyeful. “I think you do, but I want to hear you say it.” 

Sunny strode over to Jenny and gently pushed her into sitting on the couch. “I think,” she said, climbing onto Jenny so that she straddled her, and leaned into her ear, whispering, “that you, Jenny Carlisle, are gorgeous.” She undid Jenny’s bra from her position, and breathed into her ear, giggling as Jenny shivered. Then she pulled Jenny’s bra off her shoulders and sat back to take in her breasts. She squeezed one of them, looked down at Jenny’s lip biting expression, then kissed her. She kissed her firmly, pressing her body against Jenny’s, and ground her hips into the bulge in Jenny’s panties, constrained as it was. Each of them breathed harder through their noses. Jenny let out a desperate little moan as Sunny tugged on a puffy nipple. 

All at once, Sunny broke the kiss and stepped away, saying, “Now that I’ve got you where I want you, let’s go take a bath. Seriously, we both stink.” 

With a chuckle, Jenny said, “If you say so.” Then she kicked off her panties and stood up. She interrupted Sunny’s staring with a wave, saying, “Well, lead the way, horndog.” Even with her playful indictment of Sunny staring at her, Jenny kept her eyes on her butt as Sunny led her to the bathroom, grabbing a bucket of warm water from the slowly smoldering wood stove on the way. She plugged the bathtub, filled it halfway with the steaming water, and then stripped, either her posture or her action giving Jenny something to watch. 

After Sunny climbed into the big tub, leaning back into the warm water with a sigh, Jenny followed, pulling her body knees up to her chest so she could sit between Sunny’s legs. Leaning back against Sunny gave her a bit more room. She felt the heat of Sunny’s crotch against her lower back, and her own genitals stirred in response, Sunny’s perky little breasts pressing against Jenny’s shoulders. 

Sunny grabbed a bar of soap from beside the bath and lathered up her hands, before bringing them to Jenny’s body. She cleaned the dirt and sweat from Jenny’s body while feeling her up, her hands linger on and squeezing Jenny’s springy breasts to draw quiet, satisfied moans from her. Giving Jenny’s breasts a last, lingering squeeze, Sunny’s hands moved lower. She ran her hands over Jenny’s belly long enough to clean it, then her soap slick hands fell to Jenny’s pubes. Jenny let out a gasp as with one hand Sunny cupped her balls, and with the other soaped up and cleaned the base of her hardened cock. 

Leaning in to Jenny’s ear, Sunny whispered, “Gotta get every part of you clean, don’t I?” Then she slid her hand up Jenny’s cock, the soap slickening her grip as she pumped her hand back and forth. She pumped it back and forth in a way that suggested she hadn’t given many handjobs before, but as Jenny felt her hips bucking involuntarily and her balls beginning to tighten, Sunny pulled her hands away. She lathered them up again, moving them around to Jenny’s legs to clean her and feel her again. 

Once Jenny felt sufficiently clean, she pulled Sunny’s hands away from her and turned around in the tub, her knees complaining a little at the hardness of the porcelain. She kissed Sunny again, their tongues tangling with each other for a couple minutes. Finally, Jenny came up for air, her face all red and freckled and them both breathing heavily. She lathered up her hands and set to cleaning Sunny. While she did spend a little more time than perhaps necessary cleaning her breasts, Jenny used this time to wash her friend as more of a simply intimate motion than a purely erotic one, spending enough time on the smellier parts of her to get her properly clean. 

After washing each other, they dried themselves off in a hurry, and Sunny let the tub drain into a filtration unit just outside her house. As soon as Sunny set her towel down, the already dry Jenny wrapped her arms around Sunny, pulling her close into a kiss. As they kissed, Sunny dragged Jenny by the waist into the bedroom, eventually pulling her down on top of the bed. Sunny dropped down between Jenny’s spread legs, running her hands along her inner thighs and watching the cock between them twitch with something between curiosity and confusion on her face. 

Jenny’s mind fought against itself. On the one hand, her animalistic urges wanted to feel Sunny bring her to orgasm, but on the other, a different, but somehow similarly animalistic urge wanted nothing to do with a penis attached to her body. As Sunny began to kiss and lick her way up the cock, Jenny moaned, but chewing her lower lip. Sunny looked up to her face, and felt her own horniness falter as she saw some pain behind Jenny’s expression. She pulled away from Jenny’s groin and leaned her chin on one of Jenny’s knees. 

“Hey, are you alright? It looks like there’s something up with you.” 

Letting out a sigh, Jenny shook her head. “It’s just, sometimes, I’m uncomfortable with people touching that part of me. It’s not even every time, and I don’t always know when it happens, or I would’ve warned you.”

“Well, I’ve only done this once before, and that was before I figured out that I’m lesbian, so if it’s anything that I’m doing, I’m sorry.” Sunny put on a sympathetic expression, at the same time a little relieved that she wouldn’t have to please such a foreign entity as a penis, though also feeling disappointed that she wouldn’t get to see Jenny’s face all screwed up in pleasure.

“It’s not that you’re doing anything wrong, it’s me. I’m not supposed to have a penis, so this feels a bit wrong is all. It’s not your fault, Sunny.” She reached down and stroked Sunny’s hair away from her eyes. Then she patted the spot next to her on the bed. “Now get up here. Even if you can’t eat me out, I can at least eat you.”

With enthusiasm, Sunny hopped up onto the bed, lying back and spreading her legs. The eagerness with which she moved drew a giggle from Jenny, who crawled down between Sunny’s legs. She kissed her way up from her knee, following her inner thigh. With a smirk, she gently tugged on one of Sunny’s pubes, saying, “Are you country girls all this hairy, or is it just you, Miss Sasquatch?”

Sunny rolled her eyes and pushed her hips forward, saying, “Oh, shut up. And you should see Annabelle; talk about Miss Sasquatch.” 

Jenny let out an indignant scoff, giving one of Sunny’s thighs a playful slap. “She told me you two weren’t together!”

With a smirk, Sunny said, “We’re not. I just caught her bathing down by the source once when she clogged her tub drain. She wouldn’t tell me how, either.”

“Well, at least I know you don’t expect me to shave if I let you go down on me in the future,” Jenny said. Then she shut Sunny up with a quick, gentle suck of her clitoris. She ate Sunny with a tongue and lips that spoke of experience, talent and passion, and while Jenny could have gotten her off after a few minutes of acquainting herself with the different intricacies of this particular pussy, Jenny didn’t want her to be too sensitive for her to keep going. So, instead of getting Sunny getting to come quickly, Jenny brought her to orgasm after ten or so minutes, the last two of which Sunny spent moaning and gasping and digging her fingers into Jenny’s hair.   
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After bringing her partner to orgasm, Jenny climbed onto bed with her. She brushed her now messy blonde hair from her face and wiped the juices on her lips and chin off on the back of her wrist. She leaned over and almost kissed her, but stopped above the sweatier Sunny’s puckered lips, saying, “I kind of taste like, you know, you right now, hehe. Sure you want to kiss me?”

By way of a response, Sunny wrapped a hand around the back of Jenny’s head and gave her a lingering kiss. She broke it off after a little while, saying, “Jenny, after that performance, the least you deserve is a kiss. How old are you?”

Jenny knitted her brow in confusion. “Twenty two. Why?”

“How are you that good at eating pussy if you’re only twenty two and you don’t even have one?”

Blushing, Jenny laid down next to Sunny. “I tend to sleep around. Plus my first girlfriend was a fair bit older than me, and she had a lot of tricks to teach me. She was kind of, well, kinky.”

Putting on a smirk, Sunny asked, “Oh, kinky, huh? Are you going to tell me about that?”

The blush on her cheeks and neck deepening, Jenny said, “She would bring in other people to do things with. Sometimes she’d tie me up and play with me. It was usually a lot of fun, and I learned a lot about myself and about sex.”

“What ended it?”

Jenny winced. “I did. She wasn’t always understanding about me being a girl, and sometimes she was mean when I didn’t want to be touched. It took awhile for me to work up the self respect to break up with her, but I’m glad that I did, even if it meant that I had to be homeless for a little while after my parents got arrested.” She wrapped an arm around Sunny’s muscled shoulders and smiled up at her. “But it’s ok. I’m over her.”

Sunny slipped an arm behind Jenny and pulled her close. “That’s good. So, what are you going to do now? I mean, after we chase the Powder Gangers out of town tomorrow.”

Jenny blinked rapidly. “I guess I should report to the Mojave Express office in Primm. After that, I suppose I’ll probably track down the people that shot me, find out why they did it.” Looking back up at Sunny, she smiled wider and squeezed her a bit. “You know, it would be nice to have a bit of company on the road. And you seem like a bit of a big personality for such a little town, you know?”

“Well, this little town is my home. And I’m not twenty two no more, so I’m not just going to run off just because some cute girl asks me to.” She looked down at Jenny where she rested her head on Sunny’s shoulder. “It might be fun, but I’ve got a good life here. And I’ll let you sleep here whenever you need to, and I’ll share food and all that, but I think that might be as much as I’d help you.” 

Letting out a sigh, Jenny snuggled closer to Sunny, tangling her legs with hers. “Alright. I’m going to get some sleep, then.”

“Good night.”

“Night.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things come to a head with the Powder Gangers, and Jenny makes a decision.

Waiting for Doc Mitchell to answer his door after knocking on it, Jenny felt inexplicably nervous. Such a man as the Doc would certainly help to the best of his ability, so she chastised herself for feeling nervous over asking him for help with the Powder Gangers. He answered the door after a moment, his limp slowing him down a little. 

“Hey, Doc.”

“Jenny.” He put a hand on his hip, furrowing his brow. “To what do I owe the pleasure? I hope you haven’t gone and gotten yourself shot again.”

Offering him a friendly grin, Jenny said, “No, but I might soon, and so might some of the other folks in town. Joe Cobb is coming with some of his friends to collect Ringo, but we’re gonna fight them. We thought we might ask if you’ve got any equipment you could spare, and to make sure you have the place ready for any injured folks.” The grin fell from her face. “This has the potential to get real bloody.”

He nodded, a worried, understanding expression on his face. Doc Mitchell stepped out of the way and opened an arm towards his house, saying, “Of course. Come on in, I’ll get you however many stimpacks I can spare and I’ll get the standard equipment ready.” She stepped inside, and Doc Mitchell led the way to the room where he’d operated on Jenny. She only then realized how much clutter made up the space. “I’d help Trudy and the rest of you fight them if it wasn’t for my bum leg. I’d be a liability.” 

“I understand completely. We’ll all appreciate any help you can give us.” Jenny stood in the doorway while Doc Mitchell knelt beside a box on the floor. He opened it and searched through various medical supplies, standing back up after a minute with a few stimpacks in his arms. Jenny opened her backpack and said, “Here, put them in. I’ll administer them as needed once the fighting starts.” 

After giving Jenny the five stimpacks, Doc Mitchell stepped back and said, “There you go. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got some cleaning to do before any injured come here to dirty up the place.”

Jenny stepped back out into the unforgiving desert sun, looking down the hill that the Doc’s house sat on at the little farms and shacks that made up most of Goodsprings. Climbing up the hill, Sunny noticed Jenny closing the door behind her. Knitting her brow, Jenny called out, “You finished talking to Chet already?”

Sunny nodded and looked up when Jenny called to her. After climbing a bit closer to her, Sunny said, “The stingy bastard won’t give us a thing, even though his life is on the line. Said he’d sooner hand Ringo over than give us a single bullet or scrap of leather.” She spat into the loose dirt at their feet. “Asshole. Anyway, we should go make sure Ringo’s on board. Easy Pete’s going to rig up some dynamite, and Trudy’s gathering whoever of the farmers are willing to fight, but Ringo’s at the center of this, he’ll probably want to fight.” 

Jenny nodded and gestured towards the old gas station that Ringo had holed up in. “Lead the way, then.”

Not wasting any time, Sunny opened the door to the gas station. Ringo, having been sleeping, whipped the pistol out from under his pillow and leveled it at the pair in the doorway. Sunny lifted her hands, but Jenny kept her hand hovered over the pistol in her holster, wary eyes watching the guy in the sleeping bag in the corner. “Hold on, now,” Sunny said, “we’re not here to hurt you. Either of us look like Powder Gangers?”

Ringo lowered his pistol and sat up straight, wiping some sweaty black hair out of his eyes. “I guess not. What are you here for then, going to hand me over to the creeps? I won’t come quietly.”

Sunny shook her head. “No. People in this town are better than that, and besides, you and I both know that handing you over to the gang won’t make them leave us alone. We’re going to fight them, and I wanted to make sure that you’re in.” 

He nodded. “Don’t worry, I’m not about to let people risk their lives on my behalf without me being there beside them.” Jenny relaxed a bit, but kept her eyes on him. Rubbing the sleep from his eyes, Ringo grabbed his pants from where they laid beside the sleeping bag and started to put them on from inside it, careful not to show more than need be. “So where are we making our stand, then?”

“Out by the saloon is where they wanted to pick you up, so we’re expecting them there, about noon,” Sunny said. 

Ringo looked between the two of them and, with a deep breath, said, “So, is it just you two, then? Are there more people fighting with us?’

Jenny nodded. “Trudy has got some friends, and Easy Pete is burying dynamite along the hilltop. We’ve got a good shot of chasing these assholes out of town without much blood shed on our end.”

Throwing on a shirt now, Ringo climbed out of his sleeping bag. “Good. I’ll be down in town shortly. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to eat what could be my last breakfast.”

The two of them left, and as she shut the door behind them, Jenny asked, “Why are they looking for him anyway? He doesn’t seem like the kind of guy that would spark a whole lot of vengeance quests.”

Sunny shook her head. “He shot one or two of the Powder Gangers that raided his caravan. At least, I think that’s what Joe Cobb was screaming about when Ringo rolled into town a couple weeks ago. Course, it could just be that they want to be seen as a tough gang, and leaving survivors doesn’t go along with that image of them.” She shrugged. “I’m not sure. You’d have to ask Joe Cobb.”

“Well, considering I’ll shoot him next time he’s in town, I doubt I’ll get my answers from him,” Jenny said. They shared a quick, tense laugh. Then they fell into silence as they walked towards the saloon. A short ways before arriving at the saloon, Jenny took Sunny’s hand in hers and said, “You know, there’s going to be blood today, and just in case one of us gets hurt and I don’t get the chance to say it, I wanted to say something.” 

Sunny stopped and turned to Jenny, but slipped her hand out of Jenny’s. A deep wince crossed her face. “Go ahead.”

Jenny knit her eyebrows in confusion. “I just wanted to tell you you're a special person. And I admire you for defending your home, and I don't expect you to come with me, but I've enjoyed our time together.” 

To Jenny's confusion, the wince only deepened on Sunny's face. “You're too kind, Jenny. Really. Let's go get ready for the fight.” She forced the expression from her face in favor of a smile that did a poor job of hiding her pain. Still, Jenny accepted it when Sunny took her hand back and gave her a tender kiss.

“We'll talk more later,” Jenny said, opening the door to the saloon. She glanced at Easy Pete where he knelt, burying dynamite at the crest of the hill the saloon sat at the base of. Inside, several men and women milled around the bar section, cleaning and loading old rifles and pistols that probably hadn't seen action in years. 

“Not serving drinks until the Powder Gangers get run out of town,” Trudy said in a tired tone that suggested she'd been saying it all morning. Then she looked up, seeing that it was Sunny and Jenny entered and a tired grin crept across her face. “Hey, you two. Ringo coming?”

Sunny nodded. “Said he wouldn't want other people to risk their lives for him if he wasn't there to fight, too.” 

“Good.” Trudy finished scrubbing the cylinder of her revolver and set to putting it back together. “Anyhow, you two have fun last night?” She chuckled at Jenny's blush and Sunny's smirk and winked at Jenny. “Told you she was a lady killer, didn't I? Been breaking hearts since she was thirteen, this one.”

Rolling her eyes, Sunny shook her head and chuckled. “Yeah, well, it wasn't my fault Tim was barking up the wrong tree, Trudy. All that's my fault was me not knowing it.” Still, she wore a pain behind her eyes that Trudy, as was her bartending lot, picked up on. 

“You alright there, Sunny? I know that it's going to get violent later, but it's not as though you've never been in a firefight.”

Sunny clapped a hand on Jenny's shoulder, making her jump a bit. “Just worried about Jenny. Unlike you and me, she actually hasn't been in a fight like this.”

Cocking an eyebrow, Trudy pointed at the scar across Jenny’s visage. “You trying to tell me you've never been in a fight, Jenny?”

An embarrassed blush crossed Jenny’'s face, and she sunk into her shoulders a bit. “I punched a couple of people back west, but that's about it.” She tapped the scar on her temple. “This was less a fight and more me getting jumped.”

Trudy nodded, understanding. “Well, you might be the only person fighting today that's never managed to at least shoot back. At least Sunny’'s given you some pointers, I suppose.” 

Another hand jostled Jenny’'s free shoulder, and she turned to see the sleepy eyed Ringo standing beside her. “Don't worry. You're fighting for me, so I'll fight for you.” He turned to the rest of the room and called out, grabbing everyone's attention, “For everyone well enough after all this, since you're fighting for me, drinks are on me!”

He received a couple thanks, but most people shot him a side eye and got back to work. Ringo let out a confused grunt, turning to Trudy. She shrugged and said, “Sorry, but I figure they're not fighting for you. They're fighting for their home. Their families.”

Ringo opened his mouth to respond, but the front door slammed open, interrupting him. They all turned to see a young man in a prison uniform, probably younger than Jenny, standing with his arms folded and a rifle on his back. He flipped back some greasy blond hair and shouted, “Listen up, assholes!” He pointed at Ringo. “You've got five minutes to turn over that asshole, or we'll kill all you assholes, plus everyone else in this fucking town.” An older man lifted his pistol at the guy, and he stammered out, “As for why you shouldn't smoke me like pork, we've got that old guy that was planting dynamite on the hill.”

The guy that leveled his gun at him lowered it with a grumble. The young man left, and closed the door behind him. Silence took over the saloon for a few seconds before Trudy said, “Well, let’s go negotiate. Try and get Easy Pete back, and then shoot the fuckers.” 

Jenny swallowed hard as the others mostly spoke assent. Looking at Sunny, worry made itself known in her expression and stiff posture, and Jenny only gnawed her lower lip harder. She followed the others outside, everyone carrying their weapons in their arms. Ringo, fingering his pistol, followed with hesitancy and determination in his gait. 

Outside, everyone gathered on or near the porch, and looked up at the line of Powder Gangers standing halfway up the hill before them, around fifty yards away. Jenny counted ten of them, plus Joe Cobb standing with a revolver pressed against the kneeling Easy Pete’s skull. Only seven people stood on the porch, plus Sunny and Jenny. Sunny put a hand on Ringo’s shoulder and gently nudged him forward as Trudy called, “Alright, we’ve got Ringo here. Send Easy Pete on down here, and we’ll send Ringo up there.”

“Ain’t fucking happening,” Joe said. “Once we have Ringo, we’ll leave, and Easy Pete will stay here.” He said the old man’s name with a sense of irony and some confusion in his tone. 

As Trudy and Joe shouted back and forth, Jenny squeezed the rifle in her hands, thinking about how she was about to use a dead Powder Ganger’s rifle to kill more of them. Subtly, Sunny nudged Jenny’s arm and pushed her towards one of the hefty crates they’d dragged out of the saloon for cover earlier. Jenny stepped behind it, ready to take cover when needed. 

“How about you meet me in the middle, and we send them both forward at the same time?” Trudy said. 

Joe shook his head and pushed his revolver harder against Pete’s skull. “I have half a mind to shoot this old shithead and take Ringo anyway, bitch. Now send him over!”

“You touch another hair on that man’s head, you won’t be getting anything from us but a bunch of hot lead,” Trudy told him. 

(There’s a fight in the upcoming scene. If you’d like to skip it, jump ahead to the next set of lowercase x’s)  
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Joe scoffed and looked at the antsy gangers on either side of him. Then he said, “Fuck this,” and pulled the trigger of his revolver. The bullet exploded the other side of Pete’s skull, making it collapse in on itself as everyone watched. Sunny shot immediately, the first out of all of them, her bullet catching Joe in the thigh as he and the other Powder Gangers moved for cover behind some of the shacks on the hill. 

The folks at the saloon dumped as much lead as possible their way, putting three of the Powder Gangers on the ground before they could reach cover, either dead or severely injured. Jenny put a bullet in a man’s knee as he collapsed into cover, the sounds of his shouts blocked out by the gunfire. Then, looking at the other people at the saloon, Jenny realized the Powder Gangers had shot back while they scrambled for cover, leaving a middle aged man slumped against the saloon, clutching his bloody belly and groaning. She chambered another bullet and took a wild shot at the Powder Gangers while she rushed for the wood reinforced fence around the porch. After working the bolt again quickly, she took the shot man’s hand in hers. She put his other hand on his belly, shouting over the din, “Keep pressure on it!” Then, still crouching and keeping her head low, Jenny turned his body to the side with a grunt, ignoring the groan and wince the motion elicited. 

Her hands trembled as she ran a hand up the back of his shirt, feeling for an exit wound. After finding it, she withdrew a stimpack from her backpack, ignoring the flying bullets puncturing the wood near them. She stuck the injector into his back, near the wound, and slowly depressed the plunger. Giving him a quick pat on the shoulder, Jenny turned back to look at the fight going on around them. 

None of the other Goodsprings settlers had been injured as of yet, but several more Powder Gangers laid on the ground, still or groaning. Doing some quick math, Jenny figured that five of them were in fighting shape, Joe Cobb himself poking a head and an arm out of cover to shoot at them from low behind a shack, where he presumably sat or knelt to give his injured leg some rest. Jenny shouldered her rifle and drew a bead on where he’d been peeking. When he poked his head out next, she took a shot, her bullet screaming past his ear and forcing him back into cover. 

Suddenly, Joe Cobb whipped out of cover again, this time with a submachine gun rather than his revolver. He sent a spray of bullets their way, forcing them into cover and catching one woman in the shoulder with a spray of blood. She collapsed back behind her crate with a shout, just a couple yards from Jenny. Still, with Joe Cobb taking sprays at everyone that tried to take a peek, Jenny couldn’t run from cover for her. Instead, she took a stimpack from her pack and rolled it across the porch towards her, shouting, “Only use it if it’s through and through!” The woman, sweating and clutching her wound, looked at Jenny as she said this, nodding. 

Because of the suppression from the smg, nobody saw the four other Powder Gangers rushing forward. Three rounded the crates several people holed up behind in front of the porch, but after a quick exchange of bullets, took cover again with nothing but ground gained, the fighters there uninjured except the woman who’d been shot in the shoulder by Cobb. 

Then the blond boy that had shouted at them in the saloon finished climbing up and over the side of the porch. Sunny had taken cover in the corner there when it all started. Surprised, the boy got the jump on her, slamming the butt of his rifle into her head. She collapsed onto one side. By that point, Jenny had her rifle shouldered and aimed, and pulled the trigger. To her horror, having not been keeping track of her ammo, she found it empty. Sunny lifted up a hand, hoping it would spare her when the boy shot her, as he lifted his rifle to put a bullet in her head. Then he looked up to see a tall, lanky blonde woman charging him. She whipped the barrel of her rifle against his templed, knocking him to his knees beside Sunny. He made to lift his rifle around and shoot Jenny, but she kicked the weapon out of his hand and, roaring, raised her rifle above her head and brought it down on his head again. This blow knocked him unconscious, throwing him to the floor, but Jenny hit him twice more with the butt of her rifle, and in the back of her mind, most of which had been taken up by animal instinct, she noticed the blood leaking from his skull and that it gave more on the last strike than the first. 

xxxxxxxxxx

Sunny wrapped an arm around Jenny’s, saying, “Hey! It’s over; you got him.” Jenny, the fury fading from her eyes, lowered her weapon. Looking around, she found the shooting stopped, two of the Powder Gangers that had charged them dead, and Trudy dragging Joe Cobb’s body out from behind his shack. The injured surviving Powder Gangers fled east, towards their base at the correctional facility. Sunny gestured towards the injured settlers that, somewhat favoring their injured limbs, still survived thanks to Jenny’s administration of stimpacks. 

Sunny pulled Jenny away from the body of the man she’d beaten, saying, “Come on. Let’s get you some water in you.” Opening the door to the saloon, she pulled Jenny inside, who followed in a daze. Then, as reality hit Jenny, she tore away from Sunny, stumbled back outside, and vomited over the railing into a pool of blood. She turned away, sobbing and wiping the bile off of her mouth and nose onto her sleeve. Without realizing it, she slumped against the railing, her face contorted into a barely recognizable grimace. Her eyes fell onto the corpse of the boy she’d beaten, his open, unseeing eyes and the blood dribbling from his mouth, and she pushed open the door to the saloon again. 

Inside, Sunny watched as she entered, a glass of iced water in her hand. She handed it to Jenny as she stumbled inside, saying, “You get it all out? I don’t blame you, by the way. My first kill was rough, too.” 

Jenny took a deep draught of the water, it settling her stomach a bit. “Ugh, don’t say it like that.”

Furrowing her brow, Sunny asked, “Like what?”

“First kill. It means I’ll have to kill again.”

Sunny shrugged. “Death’s a part of life. You’ll get used to it, pretty quick judging by the way you took that guy out.” 

“I had no choice! It was him or you, and I didn’t have time to reload.” 

Looking down, Sunny said, “You’ve got a pistol, don’t you?” Jenny looked down, seeing the pistol still in her holster. It only occurred to her then that she could have used it instead of clubbing the boy to death, and her face flushed deep red all at once. 

“Are you not grateful? He would have killed you.” 

Sunny poked her cheek with her tongue. “No, I’m grateful-”

“Then leave it. Thanks for the water.” Jenny started for the door.   
“Wait, Jenny, where are you going?”

Jenny stopped, embarrassment, anger and a curious flavor of grief all mixing up and roiling in her head and her belly. She sighed and turned back to Sunny. “I’m going to go talk to the robot in town. Then I should head to Primm; I leave now, I can get there before sundown.”

As Jenny turned back to the door, Sunny put a hand on her shoulder. Jenny stopped again, with her hand on the handle of the door. “Stay. Please, I don't know why I like you so much, just please stay. Just for a couple weeks, to see if this will work out. I won't leave this place, but I want to see where we could go, so please stay here. Take some time for yourself, please. If not for me, then for you.”

“I'm going to Primm for me, going to find the fuckhead that shot me, for me.” Jenny sighed and shook her head, pinching the bridge of her nose. “If I don't do this, I'll spend the rest of my life wondering why he did it, and, well, I just don't have a whole lot that's keeping me from looking for some, some kind of atonement.”

Sunny took her shoulders tight in her hands. “You mean revenge, Jenny. Staying here and seeing where things go with me will do you a whole lot better than looking for revenge. Revenge is what got this shit show started today, got Easy Pete killed. Please, just stay.” 

Jenny gave Sunny a quick peck on the cheek. “Take care. I'll come back someday, and we'll see if we can make this work.” 

Letting go, Sunny sagged. Before Jenny turned again to leave, though, she gave Jenny a last, lingering kiss that left her heart fluttering and her cheeks red. Then she said, “Goodbye, Jenny,” and watched her leave the saloon.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jenny arrives in Primm and sets to looking for the checkered suit asshole that put her in the ground.

Jenny marched down the highway southward. She took a sip from her new canteen and muttered, “Can’t believe you fucking forgot you had a pistol. I mean really, that is a new low, girl, and considering you’ve been buried in a shallow grave with a bullet in your head, that’s really saying something.” She scoffed and shook her head, wiping the sweat from her face. “Now look at you. Talking to yourself. At least the other people out there will know you’re crazy.”

Contrary to her own admonishment, she kept quiet as she neared Primm. The sun sat low in the sky as she picked up the pace a little, eager to find a place to spend the night before the night actually arrived. On the east side of the highway, with a fence built right up against the rock face, a rickety old rollercoaster creaked under its own weight, letting Jenny know she was in the right place. 

Breaking her from her self hatred filled reverie, a young man called out to her, “Hey, stop!” Jenny looked up from the cracked, dusty asphalt at her feet to see a man in desert military fatigues standing by the highway, near a chest high wall of sandbags encircling the part of town to the west of the highway. Jenny recognized the red, two headed bear emblazoned on the man’s ceramic chest plate as belonging to the New California Republic, or NCR for short. He adjusted his hard, visored helmet and said, “There’s Powder Gangers that have taken over most of Primm. Unless you want to end up full of holes, you’d best stay on the west side of the highway.”

Jenny sighed and shook her head. “You know, I’m pretty fucking sick of these Powder Gangers.”

“Aren’t we all? They’ve been causing all sorts of trouble all up and down the I-15.”

Jenny gestured at the little camp further behind him on the west side. “Well, the NCR is here, why aren’t you doing anything about it?”

A flustered look crossed his face, and he stammered a moment. “Well now, you see, we don’t have the sort of man power it takes to defeat the kind of numbers they’ve got across the highway. Not without risking serious casualties or failure.” 

Looking across the highway, the east side of town look mostly deserted. A few bigger brick buildings looked to still stand, having been there for a long time, but there were plenty of shacks standing around as well, all of them behind a fence but for a little, half demolished bridge a little ways further down that stretched over the highway. “The town looks abandoned. Did they just kill everyone?”

The soldier shook his head. “No, the survivors are holed up at the Vikki and Vance Casino, and while there are a few Powder Gangers milling around, they’re mostly stuck in the Bison Steve hotel, across from the casino, since we rolled into town. They’re hiding so we can’t pick them off from a distance, most likely.” 

Jenny nodded. “Well, I need to get across the highway, talk to the survivors.” 

The soldier reached back and scratched his head underneath his helmet. “Well, I can’t stop you. You’ll want to be careful, though. We put proximity mines on the overpass between the east and west parts of town. It’s what took out half of the overpass, when one of the Powder Gangers tried to sneak into our camp.”

Knitting her eyebrows, Jenny said, “How am I, or for that matter, any of the survivors of the attack, supposed to get across, then?” 

The soldier pointed down the highway, at the section underneath the overpass, where part of it collapsed onto the highway. “Could drop down and climb up the rubble. Avoid the land mines that way.” 

“Thanks.” 

A few minutes later, Jenny pulled herself up the half ruined overpass between the west and east sides of Primm. Looking around from up top, sure enough she spotted some good hiding places for proximity mines on the opposite side of the overpass from her. She turned around and marched into the east side of town, her rifle in her arms. Staying low, she darted between bombed out cars and chunks of rubble as she made her way down the street. 

At the crossroads in front of the Vikki and Vance casino and the Bison Steve hotel, Jenny paused and looked back and forth. She saw the Powder Gangers walking down the street before they saw her, crouched behind a chunk of rubble as she was. Around fifty feet away, she lifted her rifle over the collapsed mass of brick. Drawing a bead on the lead one, she did as Sunny taught her to: adjusting her posture, and firing between breaths. 

(There’s violence in the next little bit. If you want to skip it, jump ahead to the next set of x’s)  
xxxxxxxxxx  
The bullet took him in the belly, folding him over. As Jenny chambered another bullet, the other Powder Ganger took off for cover behind a mail bin. The uninjured Powder Ganger shot back at her, missing. The bullet ricocheted off the street, making Jenny rush her own shot and miss. Still, she kept her rifle on the car that he hid behind, trying to ignore the moans and screams of the man rolling back and forth in the middle of the street. 

With his own bolt action rifle, the Powder Ganger she shot first sent a bullet flying her way, but the pain wracking his body forced him to shoot wide. Despite this, Jenny flinched and cursed, hiding further behind the pile of bricks as the bullet flew past her shoulder. This played to her advantage, as the man she’d not shot took a shot at her, and missed because she flinched behind the rubble. 

Her hands shook, but Jenny still aimed true as she put another bullet in the man on the ground, this one tearing through his chest and interspersing his hyperventilating groans with coughs and gurgles. 

“I’ll kill you, fucking cunt!” the man with the wherewithal still to scream at her shouted. The heartbeat pounding in Jenny’s ears nearly drowned him out. She knew that the only way out would be to finish what she started and put a bullet in this man, but fear kept her behind her pile of bricks. The bullets continuing to fly her way didn’t help with this. After a moment, an idea occurred to her, and she took off around the building that the pile of bricks she’d hid behind originated from. 

“Peek that pretty little head out, bitch,” the Powder Ganger shouted. “Next time you do, I’ll put an extra hole in it!” 

Jenny barely heard his threats as she snuck around the side of the building. She moved with urgency, knowing that he would realize she’d moved any moment now, but also knowing that if she stayed quiet, that moment would come later. Before she rounded the corner of the building, she picked up a brick and slung it low so that it would disturb the pile of bricks she had hid behind. It missed the pile of bricks, but skittered out into the street. To her relief, the man took a shot at it, leaving behind a high pitched whine as it ricocheted off the street. She took the opportunity to hurry around the side of the building. 

She peeked around the corner of the building as she reached it. Finding the Powder Ganger still crouched behind his car, she shouldered her rifle. Taking a half a second to aim and breathe, he caught a glimpse of her out of the corner of his eye. Her bullet flew true, puncturing his chest and knocking him onto his ass. His return shot missed, the pain flaring in his chest and the blood coughing out of his lung too distracting to aim. Again, Jenny shot, emptying her rifle into him. 

xxxxxxxxxx  
She reloaded as she marched further around the building. Jenny looked up and down the street again, and finding it empty, she hurried over to the Vikki and Vance casino. She slung her rifle over her shoulder so as to keep from intimidating, and then tried the door. As soon as she stepped into the foyer of the casino, her eyes widened and she raised her hands up beside her head. Absentmindedly, she kicked the door shut to keep any investigating Powder Gangers from coming towards her. 

Standing before her, a man held a revolver leveled at her gut. He stood a little shorter than her, but with good posture so that, despite his obvious status as an old man, he still appeared strong and able. His eyes, somewhat beady behind his wrinkled cheeks and eyebrows, glanced once over her body. He lowered his gun and rested the hammer against the chambered bullet. 

The foyer of the casino opened up onto a lower floor, where slot machines, about half of them glowing, lined the walls. An ancient car sat on a dais in the center of the building, riddled with bullet holes. Most of the people in the casino gathered around the bar in the corner opposite the front door. A few children ran around the casino floor, a barrel chested robot with a cowboy hat trying to keep them from climbing on the car. Jenny noticed that damn near everyone in the building was armed, and when she stepped inside, that most of them turned to look at her. Upon seeing that she wasn’t a threat, though, they turned back to whatever they were doing. 

“Thanks for not shooting me,” Jenny told the old, bald man before her. “I take it you’re the man that’s meant to be watching the door?”

“I’m just taking my turn, miss,” his rumbling voice croaked out. “I damn near shot you, too, but luckily my eyes ain’t going yet. You’re a woman, or look like one, and you don’t look like the kind of person that would hang around Powder Gangsters.” 

Jenny knit her eyebrows. “I thought they were called Gangers?”

The man before her rolled his eyes. “Gangers, gangsters, it all means the same to me: trouble. Reason I didn’t shoot you is because you don’t seem like the kind of woman that would hang around them, but that begs a question: what the hell are you doing in Primm? NCR soldiers would have warned you to stay out of this part of town, wouldn’t they?” 

Nodding, Jenny stepped off to the side. She leaned against one of the foyer walls, letting the man before her have a clear line of sight to the door in case someone that needed shooting came in. “Yes, they warned me to steer clear of this side of town. I came anyway because I’m looking for a couple of people.”

“Well, maybe I can help you.” He extended his free hand for shaking, and Jenny took it. “Johnson Nash, husband to Ruby Nash.” 

“Jenny Carlisle.” 

“Nice to meet you, Jenny. I ran the local Mojave Express post office branch before the Powder Gangsters came to town, so I might have met whoever it is you’re looking for.”

Jenny raised her eyebrows at his words. “You, for one. I work, well, worked for the Mojave Express.” She tapped the gouge scar along the side of her head. “Somebody shot me in the head and stole my package.” 

Johnson let out an impressed whistle and put a hand on his hip as he leaned forward to take a closer look at her scar. “Takes some impressive medical care to save you from that, I’ve got to say. Might as well let me know what you were carrying, I might be able to give you some more information about the job.” 

After a moment of fishing around in her backpack, Jenny produced a note and handed it to Johnson. “This is all the information I got about the job.” 

Johnson leaned his head back to read the note more effectively. He handed it back after a few seconds, saying, “So, it’s one of those jobs.” At Jenny’s bemused expression, he said, “About a month back, we got a series of similar jobs, all from the same, weird, cowboy robot.” Jenny’s eyes widened at the mention of a cowboy robot, as a being that fit that description dug her out of the grave, but Johnson Nash seemed not to notice. “They were all carrying little knick knacks, a chess piece, a button, that sort of thing, or, in your case, a poker chip. No idea why somebody would shoot you over that, I’m sorry. The robot was real cryptic about why he wanted these things delivered.” 

“Well, how about a question that you might be able to answer, then.” Jenny smacked her lips in vague irritation. “The man that shot me is a fancy guy, wears a checkered coat. Do you know where he might have gone? I heard that he was going to come through here.”

“Yeah, I heard somebody like that came through town, only he spent a lot of time over with the Powder Gangers in the Bison Steve hotel,” Johnson said, his tone full of disdain. “Was with some rough types, too. I don’t know more than that; the only person we’ve managed to get on the inside of the Bison Steve is Deputy Beagle.” 

Jenny glanced around the casino. “So, where is he then?”

Sighing, Johnson folded his arms and shook his head. “He’s been captured. The Powder Gangers have been trying to negotiate with the NCR now that they have somebody that they didn’t just slaughter, but NCR hasn’t had any of it. I shudder to think what they’ve done to Deputy Beagle, what they might do now that he isn’t of use to them.” 

With a huff, Jenny shook her head. “Well, what can we do? I mean, if he’s a deputy, then there must be a sheriff, right?”

“Not anymore. Last sheriff got killed in his sleep when the Powder Gangers initially swept through.” 

“Well, shit.” Jenny thought for a moment, taking a further look around the casino. People still shot her looks from the canteen that most of them hung around, but most of them ignored her for now. Her eyes lit upon the robot with the cowboy hat, and an idea struck her. “What about the protectron there? They’re made from solid steel, and have lasers equipped in their hands. That could make a good sheriff.” 

Johnson knit his eyebrows together. “I don’t know about that. Primm Slim, the robot there, he’s a museum caretaker. Not exactly a lawkeeper.” 

Jenny waved a hand dismissively, standing up straight and excitement crossing her face. “We just need to switch around the personality matrices is all. Pop him from curator to police mode, and we should be good to go!” 

“Now, hold on,” Johnson said, holding up his hands to stop Jenny from tearing off. “I hope you’re not suggesting Primm Slim chase all those Powder Gangers out of town. There’s got to be twenty of them in the Bison Steve, and I’m sure they could figure out how to take down a waddling little thing like him.” 

Jenny said, “I’ll just ask the military across the way to join us in our assault. With a sheriff, then we should have a shot at convincing them. Plus, with the slaughter that the Powder Gangers did when they swept through, I don’t doubt there’ll be a few people in this casino that want revenge on them, and from what little I know of the military situation across the way, they’ll need all the help they can get.” 

An uncertain expression still across his face, Johnson Nash shook his head. “Just going to assault them, then? The Bison Steve should be pretty well fortified by now, I’d think.” 

Some of the excitement from coming up with a solution died in Jenny’s eyes. “Mr. Nash, this is going to end up bloody, one way or another. I’m from a city out west, where gangs harangue each other on the daily, and I’ve seen a few situations like these play out,” Jenny said, though in truth she’d only listened to the radio reports or read the papers afterwards. “NCR doesn’t do hostage negotiation when it comes to violent criminals. They just sweep up the garbage.” Hostility tinged her voice as she finished saying what she said, and Jenny stepped past Johnson Nash into the pit of the casino, where the cowboy hat wearing robot marched around the exhibit in the center. 

As she set to tinkering with the back of the robot using a screwdriver, Jenny glanced over her shoulder and saw Johnson Nash still by the door, though keeping one eye on her. After popping off some of the backing on the robot, she listened to it list to her how to reset it to a default personality matrix. She rewired a few things, and as she did, a middle aged man walked up to her. As he walked, Jenny noticed him favoring his left leg a bit. 

His somewhat wrinkled, deeply tanned skin contorted into a confused expression, and he rested his hand on the pistol peeking out of his waistband. “Excuse me, miss.” 

Just then, the Primm Slim, the protectron, spat out a spray of sparks, making Jenny recoil with a hiss. She winced and turned to the man before her, and wiped the fresh soot on her fingertips off on her jumpsuit. Her eyes fell to the pistol in his waistband, and she stood up straight, ready to rush him if he tried to draw on her. “Yes, sir?”

“Well, who are you? And what are you doing to our robot?” 

Primm Slim let out another momentary buzzing sound, and Jenny winced at the anger behind the man’s concerned expression. “I’m Jenny, and I’m going to make your robot museum, er, casino curator, into your sheriff, since you seem to be lacking one at the moment.”

“Oh. Well, I’m Harry.” Harry’s bushy eyebrows popped up as he thought about what Jenny said. “So you’re going to go after the Powder Gangers, is that it?”

“Yep.”

“Just you and, and Primm Slim?” 

“If need be, but I think the military will back me up, and some of the people that lost a lot when the Powder Gangers came through.” Jenny glanced at his leg that he’d been favoring, and saw that even now Harry leaned on the other one. 

Harry extended a hand towards her, and the movement made Jenny flinch. Then she let out a breathy chuckle at the ridiculousness of flinching at a handshake, and took his hand in hers. “I do believe I’m one of those people, Miss Jenny. Bastards raped and murdered my mother, and put a bullet in my leg when I tried to fight them off her.” Concern writ itself across Jenny’s face, both at his words and at how calmly he said them. “I’d sure like to pay them back for it. Couple of them did it, a tall, thick beast of a man called Drew, and a shorter, even stouter one named Ian, or Isaac, I don’t remember. Think Drew’s their leader, though. The short one was trying to get him to go when people started fighting back, but he wanted to finish her off.” The expected vitriol finally found his voice when he said those last three words. Harry chewed his tongue and spat on Primm Slim’s metal foot. 

Jenny nodded, a solemn expression on her face. “Well, with any luck, you can get them back, and give your mother a good burial. I need something from you, though.”

“And that would be?”

“I need you to round up the other hurt folks of this town, whoever’s willing to fight. They’re probably dug in pretty well, but with this hunk of steel and lasers,” Jenny said, slapping Primm Slim on the back, “leading the charge, along with some armed and armored NCR soldiers, I don’t think the Powder Gangers really stand a chance, do you?” 

“I’d certainly like to think so.” 

Harry turned to walk off, but Jenny called after him, “And get me some food, would you? I’m fucking starving.”

XXXXXXXXXX

Standing in the NCR tent across the highway from where the citizens of Primm were imprisoned in a casino across the street from a hotel full of gangsters, Jenny looked the Lieutenant in charge of this installation up and down. He looked bulky, but Jenny had hung around enough NCR soldiers to know that one of the effects of the standard ceramic armor plates of the NCR uniform was to make skinny soldiers look more muscular. 

“So, what is it that you’ve been planning on doing about the Powder Gangers, Lieutenant Hayes?” Jenny asked him, her hands folded behind her. 

“As of now,” the Lieutenant said, cleaning the semi automatic rifle on his desk, “the plan is to starve them out. We have the road, and therefore we have food coming in. They don’t. We also have a couple long range rifles, which are always trained on the front door. So, in a few weeks, when they’ve run out of food and are eating rats, they’ll be amenable to negotiation.”

“You are aware of the windows on the back side of the building, yes, Lieutenant?” 

“I am. And I know what you’re about to ask, too. If they decide to leave, that will probably be the best outcome for everyone, aside from them simply surrendering, which isn’t going to happen.”

Jenny chewed her tongue to keep herself from interjecting something rude. “I apologize, Lieutenant, but I fail to understand how that is the best outcome for everyone.” 

Lieutenant Hayes pointed a finger up and rotated it in a circle as he said, “Us here, we’re supposed to contain the Powder Gangers. Not let them get any further south. So far we’ve done a good job, and if the bastards in that hotel try and head south, we can pick them off. If they go back north, then we’re fine because we did our job, and then we get to secure Primm and the safety of its inhabitants, too.” 

“But the criminals in the Bison Steve won’t be brought to justice that way.” Lieutenant Hayes opened his mouth to respond, but Jenny raised a couple hands to stop him. “Now, I know you’re ill equipped to storm the hotel, and bring them to justice, perhaps even worse equipped than the Powder Gangers would be to attack this installation, but I brought you some help.” Jenny stepped back and pushed the flap of the tent open a bit so she could lean her head out. Standing just outside of the tent was the tall, steel barrel-like form of Primm Slim, to whom she said, “Hey, Slim, come on in.” 

The clunky robot waddled into the tent, Jenny just barely tall enough to hold the flap of the tent above his head. Still, the hat atop his head nearly flopped off it, if not for the rivets holding it in place. The Lieutenant’s eyes widened as he watched Primm Slim waddle into the tent, and said, “So, a protectron is what you brought me. They’re pretty damned sturdy, aren’t they?”

Primm Slim stopped waddling with a clunk and said in his tinny voice, “RobCo builds only the highest quality of robots, so we are all pretty sturdy, pardner. We are also equipped with high quality laser pistols in our wrists, good for deterring or stopping criminals.” 

Jenny opened an arm towards Lieutenant Hayes and said, “This is Lieutenant Hayes, of the New California Republic Army, Sheriff Slim.” Her lips curled into a grin as she referred to the robot, but she wiped the grin off her face in order to keep up her visage of professionalism. 

Looking up and down the seven foot tall robot, Lieutenant Hayes sighed. “Well, this is something, alright. I’m still hesitant though, to storm the building, miss. We have two grenades, and three service rifles, but aside from that, we’re equipped as well as you and the criminals in that town, worse even.” He set to reassembling the military service rifle on his desk and glanced at the other two held by the soldiers watching the conversation. “The leader of these Powder Gangers uses a flamethrower. Burned down two buildings with it when they came through town at first.” 

“Forgive me, pardner, if I’m speaking outta turn,” Primm Slim said, “but the melting point of steel is 1370 degrees Celsius, and the average flamethrower burns at 1000 degrees Celsius. I should be able to apprehend this flamethrower using criminal, Lieutenant.” 

With her hands on her hips and a prideful expression on her face, Jenny looked up at the protectron and said, “Well, that is very kind of you, Sheriff.” She turned back to the Lieutenant. “Now, aside from him, several of the citizens of Primm are willing to fight, Lieutenant. As I understood it, you and the Powder Gangers were on about even footing as far as numbers are concerned, and this should give you the advantage on an attack.” 

Lieutenant Hayes looked down and away, his arms folded as he’d finished putting the rifle back together. He sighed. “Look, I don’t want to mount an attack unless I’m absolutely sure that it will be successful, and will result in minimal loss of life.” He shook his head and stuck his tongue in his cheek. “But I suppose this is as good an opportunity as we’re going to get, so unless we decide to keep waiting them out, now would be the time to act.” Looking up, he beckoned the soldier beside the flap of the tent, a young woman with cropped hair and sweat beading on her forehead from the heat. “What do you think, Sergeant Johnson?”

She stepped forward, and everyone in the room turned to look at her. Jenny saw in the intensity of her gaze a fury that made her want to take a step back. “I say we take the bastards down, sir. They’re rapists and murderers and the people of Primm are relying on us to protect them, so I say we do it to the best of our ability, and I think that means attacking the Bison Steve.” She suddenly grew somewhat bashful, and she took a step back, sucking her teeth. “Um, I apologize if I spoke out of turn, sir. I’m passionate about this.” 

“No need to apologize,” Lieutenant Hayes said, “I asked you for your opinion, and you gave it. Go ahead and gather the troops.”

“How many, sir?”

“All of them.”

XXXXXXXXXX

By the time Jenny had returned to the west side of town with Primm Slim, a couple more Powder Gangers had taken to the streets to recover the bodies of the men Jenny killed earlier. She didn’t take them by surprise this time because of the clanking of the protectron, but fortunately, they focused their fire on the bulletproof robot, which meant Jenny was able to focus enough to put them down. As she led Primm Slim back to the Vikki and Vance, she gave him a quick once over, noting that the bullets did nothing more than scratch the finish on the thick steel plated robot. 

She had Primm Slim open the door, just in case the person guarding it was a bit too trigger happy this time. Fortunately, they refrained from shooting, and allowed Jenny and Primm Slim into the locked down casino. In short order, Jenny tracked down the man with the limp that she’d spoken to earlier. 

Harry sat at the bar in the back of the casino, sucking the meat out of a roasted piece of chitin. When Jenny tapped him on the shoulder, he turned, chewing, and grunted, “Hm?” Upon recognizing Jenny with Primm Slim behind her, he swallowed quickly and put down the giant mantis foreleg in his fingers. He wiped the grease off on his pants. “Oh, Jenny. What did the military have to say? Why haven’t they helped us yet?” His tone of voice still came out cool and even, setting Jenny to shivering momentarily, despite the heat. 

“They were planning on starving the Powder Gangers out,” Jenny said, “but with our help, they’re willing to lend the power necessary to storm the Bison Steve.” 

“Good. When?”

“This evening. They want the sun behind them so that it’ll be harder for them to shoot west from inside the building once we’ve got everyone set up. Primm Slim will be leading the charge, but a Lieutenant Hayes is going to be delivering orders.” Jenny leaned back and glanced around Harry. “So, how many folks are willing to fight?”

Harry glanced around the crowded casino floor. “Well, considering we’ve got around a hundred people crammed in here, I’d say I did pretty well getting five of them to join us.” 

“Alright, where are they?” Jenny asked. “I need to brief everyone on the plan, so if you could gather them, that’d be great.” 

“Will do.”


End file.
